


Tidal Waves

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Motherhood, Swimming Pools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-13
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2020-01-12 17:55:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18451652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Carol brings Rindy to the YMCA.





	Tidal Waves

The YMCA pool was leveled up to her torso with bright yellow colored ropes sectioned off in different age groups. Carol was standing in a navy blue one-piece with her blonde hair hanging down around her face in wet ringlets. She smiled up towards Rindy, who had her knees bent, wearing orange arm floaties and a pink bathing suit with a picture of a green seahorse on the front. The child also wore a rubber white swim cap that kept her hair in place. She was four and nervous to go in the water.

“Come now, sweetheart—Mommy’s right here, I’ve got you, come on,” Carol spoke with full confidence and reassurance. “Jump right in, my darling... I’ll catch you...”

Rindy squatted real low near the edge of the concrete platform and thought of herself as a frog, like her and Mommy rehearsed. 

“Remember the frog and lily pad game?” Carol said, reading her mind. “Just think of Mommy as the lily pad... _Ribbet,_ ” she impersonated her best frog sound that got her daughter smiling. 

“The frog leaps on the lily pad!” Rindy exclaimed.

“That’s right,” Carol held her arms out. “Can you give me your best frog sound?”

“Ribbet!” Rindy giggled. 

“That’s right! Very good,” Carol replied, keeping her hands leveled up in the air. “And what do frogs do? Do they fly?”

“No!” Rindy cried.

“Do they hiss? Like a snake?”

“Nooo!”

“What do they do then? Tell me, honey, I forgot.”

“Frogs... _leap!_ ” Rindy now pumped her small legs and sprang like a frog right into Carol’s arms, causing them both to sink into the pool water with the momentum of both their body weight.

Carol laughed pleasantly and was proud over the success of her daughter’s fear of going into the water. Arms clinging tight around her mother’s neck, Rindy held on with half her bottom and legs underwater. The four-year-old was already shivering—staring into her mother like, _I did it! Now what?_ Carol kissed her loudly on the face and began to spin her around the pool.

“R-ribbet!” Rindy croaked.

“Ribbet,” Carol mimicked, resting their cold, wet foreheads together.


End file.
